The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) football is over for college football. It went out in style last night as the Florida State Seminoles beat out the Auburn Tigers, which is probably in the top five championship games played during the BCS era (Ohio state over Miami in 2002, Texas over USC in 2005 are my favorites).

Already the pundits are already talking about what the 2014-2015 preseason rankings are going to be as well as who is going to make it to the 2014-2015 championship game, which I find to be a pity. For the most part we don’t even know who will be playing on each team due to some players still holding out on whether to commit to the draft and the second contingency of what will happen on the NCAA Signing Day for new recruits. I personally have a problem with preseason rankings because I think they hold entirely too much weight on the entire season. Take Alabama for example – they are a good team but they were ranked #1 all season despite showing “talent points” and close wins against teams that they should have smashed only to lose their last two games against Auburn and then Oklahoma (for granted, Alabama was a victim in the Auburn Miracle experiment). In my opinion if Alabama was judged the same the way the rest of the fleet then they wouldn’t have been the reigning #1 for most of the season.

The Bowl Series was on par with how it always has been in college ball – crazy, unexpected, and full of upsets. Alabama fell to Oklahoma, Stanford lost to Michigan State, Baylor lost to UCF, Arizona State got smashed by Texas Tech, NIU dropped the ball against Utah, and Ball State lost to Arkansas. To me all this simply shows how fickle and biased rankings can be – how can the big bad Alabama lose to Oklahoma? This is why NCAA football is so much better than the NFL to me – anyone can win any game. It just depends on who wants it more paired with field conditions, home-field advantage, injuries, depth of roster, and coaching. You generally don’t get that with the NFL as all players are top notch as are their backups.

I’d like to share with you the results of the Bowl games. First off how the Big Ten (B1G) faired.

The gripe all season from many was that Ohio State was not deserving of its ranking. The main complaint was that the conference play in the B1G was weak. And to that, I largely agree. To go 2-5 in postseason and claim that you are still a power conference is a tough sell to voters and pundits. However, I don’t think the B1G is dead. Every team has up and down years as do conferences – this is possibly no more true than in NCAA football. Go back a few decades and the B1G was the conference to beat – Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State were consistently some of the toughest teams to beat. With all this said I’m sad that the B1G didn’t fare too well this year and I hope that we come back next year and earn our respect back.

Even with a BCS Championship the ACC didn’t fare well either which gives some sort of creedance to the fact that even if a team has a weak conference they can still be a good team… or the Champions. I was actually one of those detractors saying that FSU may not be as good as their undefeated record shows because of their conference but in the end they pulled out a Champinship victory. I give props to the SEC and the PAC-12 in their victories as there is no doubt that these are conferences that have a lot going for them. To the B1G, my beloved B1G, all I have to say is that it is time to step up their game. Specifically I’d like to say congratuations to the Michigan Spartans on their win – they deserve their B1G Title and their Rose Bowl win!

I’m most excited to see what Damon Webb and Marshon Lattimore do to our pass defense as Ohio State’s pass defense was dismal this year – not to mention I didn’t think that Roby was all that he was cracked up to be. Roby seemed more interested in using Ohio State as a stopgap measure before he went into the NFL draft than someone that was a proud Buckeye through-and-through. I’m super sad to see Carlos Hyde and Ryan Shazier leave but at the same time excited to see how far Joey Bosa comes as he did a great job as a freshman.

I will also be looking forward to beating the Michigan Wolverines again.

Quotes:

"We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth... For my part, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst; and to provide for it." - Patrick Henry

"Politicians and diapers both need to be changed, and for the same reason." - Anonymous

"Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it." - William Penn

"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country" - Hermann Goering

"I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do this I keep on doing." - Romans 7:18-19

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain